Noise control

The effects of impulse noise on receiving systems are
studied and impulse noise models commonly used in analysis
of such receiving systems are introduced. Various
techniques for identifying the optimum receiving structure
are presented and the concept of a nonlinear receiver
for enhancing receiver
environments is evolved.
performance in impulse noise
The effect of finite predetection
bandwidth on the performance of such nonlinear receiver
structures is studied in a qualitative fashion through
computer simulation. The performance of a linear receiver (matched filter) is
compared to that of nonlinear receiver structures employing
nonlinearities such as blanker and softlimiter;
noncoherent ASK modulation was used for the computer
simulation experiment.
The performance of the blanker and softlimiter is then
compared for different predetection bandwidths. An attempt
was made to optimize a particular receiver structure in
terms of the predetection bandwidth, for a given model
of corrupting noise parameters (Gauss~an and impulsive).

Broadband self-noise generated by rotating blades in a subsonic ducted propfan is studied for a hard walled cylindrical duct in a uniform flow. An expression for the induct sound power radiated by three self-noise mechanisms is derived: the Turbulent-Boundary-Layer-Trailing-Edge noise, the Laminar-Boundary-Layer-Vortex-Shedding noise and the Trailing-Edge-Bluntness noise. The present theory uses NASA's self-noise prediction methodology for an isolated airfoil. An efficient method of programming is presented which reduces the time of computation for multiple radial modes. The results obtained are presented, discussed and compared with Blade-Tip-Boundary-Layer fan noise predictions obtained using the SDPF code developed at FAU. The most important parameters which affect self-noise are found to be the angle of attack, the effective Mach number and the chord length of the blade. For high angles of attack, the TBL-TE noise gives significant amount of sound power especially at the low frequencies. For low effective Mach numbers and at certain angles of attack, the LBL-VS noise can have high power levels in the mid and high frequencies. Trailing edge bluntness noise appeared to give insignificant amounts of energy over the whole spectrum compared to the other self-noise mechanisms.

When a vehicle crosses the grid section of an open grid or bascule bridge, a tonal noise is generated. The tonal character of the noise is a consequence of the periodic excitation of both the tire and the grid, that comes from the interaction between the vehicle tire and the periodic grid members. In this thesis, the parameters that control the level and frequency of the generated noise are investigated, with emphasis on understanding the contribution to the overall noise level from the vibrations of the grid. Field and laboratory measurements have been performed, together with analytical analysis, on sample grid designs. By determining the acoustic radiation efficiency of the grid, the noise contribution from the grid vibrations is estimated by combing the radiation efficiency with the field measured vibration levels. The results of this study show that the contribution from the grid is small compared to that which may be coming from the vibration of the tire. Without first reducing tire noise, structural modifications to the grid in the form of damping or acoustic baffles will not produce any significant noise reduction.

Broadband noise generated by subsonic ducted propfans is studied for a hard walled flanged duct with an infinite centerbody and in a uniform flow. The interaction between boundary layers and blades and the impingement of the blade wakes on the stators are the main sources of noise considered in the forward and rear arc respectively. An efficient method of programming is presented which reduces the time of computation of expressions. The results obtained are presented and discussed. The boundary layer noise is found to have no sufficient energy at low frequencies regarding the available data, unless the boundary layer thickness is increased by a small amount. Finally, good predictions are obtained with the wake noise although some parameters would require a better evaluation.

The use of digital circuits in incre asingly diverse applications
and environments has greatly increased the probability
of electromagnetic interference in digital machines. The
source and control of noise in digital systems have become
major considerations in hardware design. This paper addresses
these problems and their solutions. The noise immunities of
various semiconductor families are compared showing design
tradeoffs. The effects of transmission line reflections on
digital wave forms are analyzed. The means for calculating
interference between conductors (crosstalk) are shown with
appropriate approximations. The effects of shielding conductors
and circuitry are explored with formulas for near field
calculations shown. Proper grounding and power supply decoupling
methods are shown to be paramount to proper system design.
The paper ends with an approximate noise analysis of a simple
computing machine.

With the increase of air traffic and the introduction of larger aircraft and therefore larger engines, the noise generated by aircraft engines have become of greater importance. In order to address these problems, noise prediction codes must be developed in order to better understand the noise generating process. This thesis addresses important issues related to broadband self-noise from ducted fans based on the prediction model developed by Glegg and Jochault [1]. By addressing issues regarding the prediction of broadband self-noise from an isolated airfoil with the observer in the far field directly overhead (at 90° above), improvements can be made to Glegg and Jochault's approach for ducted fans. The prediction of broadband self-noise at 90° above a single airfoil is done by considering boundary layer parameters, the results obtained are compared with theoretical approaches, as well as experimental results obtained by Brooks [2] in order to verify its accuracy.

This study presents an experimental and analytical investigation of the factors that affect the sound generated by airboats as well as the interaction among these factors; an airboat travels on water and wet land by means of an air pusher propeller attached to an internal combustion engine. These analyses show that the engine and propeller RPM are the main contributors of sound. The contribution of the engine is a tonal sound that is reduced by using a muffler. The sound generated by the propeller is a flapping sound clearly identified at high revolutions (over 1800 RPM). Above mid-range speeds, the propeller sound takes over, and any reduction of sound on the muffler does not play any role. The only method to control the sound of an airboat without any design modifications is to maintain the operational RPM at mid-range when the muffler's devices contribute to the sound reduction.

Flow over a rough surface is known to radiate sound as a dipole source that is directional. In order to better understand this source, measurements are being made in a wind tunnel using a microphone array. The measurements collected by a microphone array are beamformed to give a source image and can be deconvolved with an assumed point spread function in order to obtain the source levels. This thesis considers alternative analysis algorithms that can be used to analyze wind tunnel data. Only numerical examples of how these algorithms work will be presented and the analysis of real data will be considered in later studies. It will be shown how estimates can be made of the source directivity by comparing the measured data with a theoretical source model and minimizing the error between the model and the measurements.

The goal of a speech enhancement algorithm is to remove noise and recover the original signal with as little distortion and residual noise as possible. Most successful real-time algorithms thereof have done in the frequency domain where the frequency amplitude of clean speech is estimated per short-time frame of the noisy signal. The state of-the-art short-time spectral amplitude estimator algorithms estimate the clean spectral amplitude in terms of the power spectral density (PSD) function of the noisy signal. The PSD has to be computed from a large ensemble of signal realizations. However, in practice, it may only be estimated from a finite-length sample of a single realization of the signal. Estimation errors introduced by these limitations deviate the solution from the optimal. Various spectral estimation techniques, many with added spectral smoothing, have been investigated for decades to reduce the estimation errors. These algorithms do not address significantly issue on quality of speech as perceived by a human. This dissertation presents analysis and techniques that offer spectral refinements toward speech enhancement. We present an analytical framework of the effect of spectral estimate variance on the performance of speech enhancement. We use the variance quality factor (VQF) as a quantitative measure of estimated spectra. We show that reducing the spectral estimator VQF reduces significantly the VQF of the enhanced speech. The Autoregressive Multitaper (ARMT) spectral estimate is proposed as a low VQF spectral estimator for use in speech enhancement algorithms. An innovative method of incorporating a speech production model using multiband excitation is also presented as a technique to emphasize the harmonic components of the glottal speech input.